Suchergebnisse

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the behavior of gasoline prices in California, focusing on: (1) the extent to which retail gasoline prices spike more frequently and higher in California than they do in the rest of the United States; (2) why gasoline prices in California rise faster than they fall in response to increases and decreases in the wholesale price of gasoline; and (3) the factors that account for differences in the retail prices of gasoline between San Francisco and Los Angeles."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Gasoline prices in West Coast states are frequently among the highest in the nation and these states tend to see longer periods of high prices compared with other parts of the country, the West Coast gasoline market is characterized by a tight balance between supply and demand, and isolation from other U.S. gasoline markets. Both of these situations cause rapid price increases in reaction to supply disruptions. GAO's comparisons of gasoline prices in California, Oregon, and Washington found that individual markets in the three states are closely linked and are essentially part of a single market for gasoline on the West Coast. Gasoline prices for cities in these states generally followed similar patterns with respect to price increases and decreases. As a result, any event that a significantly changed prices in one state could affect gasoline prices in other West Coast states. Although California, Oregon, and Washington are essentially part of the same West Coast market, each state has attributes that tend to increase its respective gasoline prices. Moreover, within any given state, local market conditions may cause prices to vary considerably. GAO's analysis found that lifting the export ban on Alaskan North Slope crude oil caused the West Coast price of this oil to rise but did not significantly affect the price of gasoline. This report summarizes four reports: GAO-01-433R, RCED-00-100R, RCED-00-121, and RCED-99-191."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The transportation sector accounts for roughly two thirds of the nation's petroleum consumption and one quarter of the total U.S. energy use. Several steps have been taken during the last 25 years either to reduce petroleum consumption or to increase fuel diversity in the transportation sector, including tax incentives, mandates for alternative fuel vehicles, and laws to promote automobile fuel efficiency. This testimony discusses the extent of alternative fuel vehicle acquisition and fuel use, some of the barriers inhibiting greater use of alternative fuels and vehicles, and the federal tax incentives used to promote the use of alternative motor fuels and vehicles. So far, alternative fuels and vehicles have not made much of a dent in the conventional fuel and vehicle dominance of the U.S. vehicle fleet, primarily because of fundamental economic obstacles, such as the relatively low price of oil, insufficient availability of alternative fuel refueling infrastructure, and the relatively high cost of some alternative fuel vehicles. As GAO reported in February 2000 (RCED-00-59), any significant increase in the use of alternative motor fuels and vehicles by the general public will depend on the following two factors: (1) a dramatic and sustained increase in the price of gasoline and (2) very large incentives, far above the current levels, to reduce the cost of using alternative fuels and vehicles. Depending on what happens to conventional fuel prices, these incentives would likely need to be maintained for some time--at least until the number of vehicles reaches the level necessary to support an economically sustainable infrastructure."

The increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is considered to be one of the global problems of our time, as this phenomenon leads to an increase in ambient temperature. The international community tries to take various measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Within the framework of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and limiting global temperature increases. In 2016 Russia joined the Paris Agreement on Climate and committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25–30 % since 1990 levels by 2030. Transport is and will remain one of the main emitters of carbon dioxide emissions in the medium term. CO2 emissions from the combustion of any fuel depend primarily on its chemical composition. The composition of modern motor fuels includes paraffin, naphthenic, olefin and aromatic hydrocarbons, and sometimes oxygen-containing compounds are introduced into their composition. The article presents for the first time the results of studies of specific CO2 emissions of various classes of hydrocarbons included in motor fuels, depending on the number of carbon atoms in the molecule. It is shown that the specific CO2 emissions of hydrocarbons included in the composition of motor fuels differ greatly both in group composition and within groups themselves. Specific CO2 emissions of such high-octane components of automobile gasoline as butanes and toluene, for example, differ by 10.6 %, and in terms of unit of energy released – by more than 24 %.